The Last in Line-Dio

 Today I am reviewing some early power metal from one of the bands in the HUGE Black Sabbath family of bands. This is Dio's classic The Last in Line, featuring some pretty awesome cover art and even awesomer sound. There are some great melodic guitar riffs, that scream of proto-power metal. The most amazing part about the guitar is how full the sound feels despite their only being one guitarist. Then there is the steady bass, which has a couple great fills. In addition the drums are excellent and have a lot of originality behind them. Also Dio experiments with some added in keyboards which sound pretty nice. The vocals of Dio are filled with a fiery passion for music and that shows in his super awesome lyrics. All in all this is a extremely melodic and beautiful album with an impressive sound.

The guitar sound is incendiary, INCENDIARY, it has so many beautiful and melodic riffs that it boggles the mind. There are different genres of heavy metal covered by the guitar, the most notable is of course proto-powermetal. Some of the greatest power metal bands have cited this album as a lasting influence. The guitar has a similar sound to that of Iron Maiden;s Adrian Smith who is known for his beautiful melodic guitar solos. Some of the riffs remind me of Judas Priest, other riffs from this album were pretty much stolen by Zakk Wylde. The bass is solid and helps drive the music on and gets quite a few nice fills. In a 4 piece band it has quite a big roll, and it satisfies it's roll well. The drums are pretty original and are a pinnacle of Vinnie Appice's ability. Finally the keyboards have a pretty decent sound and are a good listen adding a melodic feel to a lot of songs.

Dio's (like the guy not the band) voice is spectacular. His vocals have fire and passion and are amazing because of that. Dio has the ability to hold a note for bars on end. The best word to describe Dio's amazing voice is Power, just that 'Power' when you listen to him you realize that he has more of himself behind his music than nearly any other musician in the world. Asides from Dio's clean vocals there are some weird experimental death growls in some parts of songs, these help accentuate the music but do not dominate it. The lyrics are pure Dio, they talk mostly about sex and drugs but also have a lot of fantasy topics.

Overall this is a great album and one of Dio's (both the guy and the band's) best. It has amazing instrumental work great vocals and cool sing a long lyrics. The guitar is powerful and features a lot of great sounds. In particular it has some great solos. Then there are the nice bass fills, these are helped by the great drumming of Vinnie Appice, who is one of my favorite All-Time drummers. The keyboards add a nice melodic feel to the music. Finally Dio's vocals are like... wow. He has everything that makes a great vocalist. An amazing voice and fire behind his lyrics. This is a good album with some killer songs for any metalhead to enjoy.

OVERALL 9.5/10

Mob Rules-Black Sabbath

 I'm too tired today to to do unsigned metal, I stayed up all last night, if I feel better later then maybe I'll do some. Anyway right now I am covering Black Sabbath, and not just any Black Sabbath, Dio's Black Sabbath, so it is completely awesome and powerful and cool and yay! This is just a classic heavy metal album and a classic Dio album, this is the album that proved that Dio would be a fixture in heavy metal forever. The guitar is powerful and bold. However Iommi experiments with faster and stronger riffs on this album as opposed to his crunchier and slower riffs off earlier albums. The bass is good as always, Geezer Butler remains rocks solid, even with a new drummer in Vinny Appice. Appice does a good job at the kit with some nice fills. Then of course Dio has the best voice of the 80's so theres no challenging that.

Iommi continually proves himself as one of the greatest guitarists of the age on this album. Every song that he writes has an amazing riff powering it, I think that following this method could result in the release of a lot more awesome music. Iommi loses the slower feel of some of his earlier works in favor for a louder and more distorted sound. He also has solos that still have a bit of a blues feel, but they are now much more heavy metal in style. The bass of Geezer Butler is powerful and helps drive the music along, it has a powerful feel and creates a great sound. The drums are significantly harder than those of Ward and are very well done.

Then of course there are the vocals, wow the vocals. Dio has an amazing voice for such a small man and he can really belt out music like no other. He can sing softly, like he does on the track Sign of the Southern Cross and at other times he can just wail it out and create a humongous epic and beautiful song. His voice has a power only rivaled by Robert Plant and Bruce Dickinson, most other singers can not match his raw power. Ozzy for example has a great voice, possibly better than Dio's but Dio's is just way more powerful and can give a lot more strength to the songs. The lyrics are pure Black Sabbath they are dark and scary and awesome as it always is with Sabbath.

All in all this is an amazing album with a really great sound. Everything that you need for a great album can be found here. There are fantastic guitar parts, guitar parts that are riffs driven and esxtremely powerful. The bass is also strong and helps the music along often Butler Combines with the drums to create and amazing rhythm section. The drums are harder and totally spectacular. Dio has a voice which can tear down a house, it is simply so powerful. The lyrics are dark and awesome and overall this is just a fantastic Black Sabbath album. My favorite track is Sign of the Southern Cross. Really you should listen to this. Now off to fix my pedal.

OVERALL 9/10

We Wish You a Merry Xmas

So today we bought our Christmas Tree. So what does this mean for you? Why We Wish You a Metal Christmas of course! This is an album featuring a bunch of unique supergroups featuring all sorts of metal gods. You get to hear Iommi, Dio, Alice Cooper, and Lemmy among others. They take every over used christmas carols and makes them into awesome heavy metal. Everybody who likes heavy metal and christmas (aka every sane human being) should love this album. Some of the people performing together on here are like dream supergroups. Try Iommi, Dio, Steven Wright and Rudy Sarzo on the best version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen ever. Supergroups you and I fantasize about being formed come together. Some of the songs are simply silly but overall the lyrics stay true to the original version.

Run Rudolph Run, the amazing Chuck Berry track sounds amazing with distorted guitars and Lemmy singing to it. The guitar parts composed for the music are 100% pure awesome heavy metal. There are quite a few excellent solos here as well, especially in We Wish You a Merry Xmas. The vocalists are pretty much set to match the music. So Lemmy was probably chosen after Grohl for Run Rudolph Run for example. Dio is the perfect vocalist for his song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Alice Cooper provides the perfect feel for Santa Claws, making it sound like some sort of demon worshipping song.

Some bits sound like they were taken from the artists earlier songs. For example God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen reminds me of a black sabbath song I can not quite name. The guitar is classic heavy metal overall though. It is overall reminiscent of early black sabbath and other early really heavy bands like Deep Purple. The vocalists are all perfect while the guitarists all get to show off their strengths with some of the best vocalists in heavy metal. This is a really cool album, that combines both humor and pure hardcore heavy metal. It just brings a smile to my face to hear George Lynch provide a guitar solo for Little Drummer Boy. This album makes me considerably more supportive of Christmas caroling.

Overall this is a really good album it just lacks some notable songs, AKA Jingle Bells. Still this album is worth listening to at anytime of the year really and I just love it. Tim “Ripper” Owens singing along to a heavy metal blues track about Santa Claus is just something that forces you to smile at the irony of it all. This also supports my theory of the holy trinity. Santa Claus, Jimmy Page, and Chuck Norris. You have to admit thats a good theory. Anyway this is the best christmas album I have ever heard. So go listen to it know kids, and Merry Christmas.

OVERALL 9.5/10